St. George Iron Man 2011

Saturday was the Ironman Competition here in St. George. We were lucky enough to watch and volunteer for the event. Let me just first break down the distances for this race....the race started in Sand Hollow for the 2.4 mile swim. Then the racers hop on their bikes and ride 112 miles just to then run 26.2 miles all over St. George, Snow Canyon, and the Red Cliffs Desert. I am just amazed at the athletic ability that these people had that participated. There ended up being about 1600 participants and 1300 of them actually finished the race by the cut off time. Apparently the St. George course is one of the hardest Ironman courses mainly because of the heat and the extreme changes in elevation throughout the race.

Justin and I got up early Saturday morning and headed down the street to watch all the bikers come through our neighborhood. We sat at a 90 degree turn in the course for the bikers so we got to cheer them on and also slow them down in order to warn them about the tight turn they were coming up on. We only witnessed one guy crash, but he was able to get back on and continue racing.

This car led the first of the riders and kept track of the time from the start of the race.

We then headed down to Main Street to watch all the bikers come through and transition to the run.

1st biker into the transition to the run.

1st male to start the run, Maik Twelsiek. He would end up taking 2nd with a time of 8hrs and 33min.

2nd male to start the run, Mathias Hecht. He finished 1st with a record time of 8hrs and 32min.

1st female to start the bike. Unfortunately she had to drop out of the race due to a foot injury.

2nd Female, Heather Wurtele, to start the run. She would end up winning 1st out of the girls with a time of 9hrs and 30min.



Maik Twelsiek coming in to loop around and start his second lap of the run.



Mathias Hecht coming in to loop around and start his second lap of the run.

Heather Wurtele coming in to loop around and start her second lap of the run.

Later in the afternoon we were able to volunteer for Run Aid Station #8, which sat at about mile 5 of the run. We gave out Vaseline and power drinks to all the runners. Our station also handed out water, sponges, energy packets, pretzels, chicken broth, etc. Our main job was to just keep the runners hydrated and cheer them on. By the time they came to us, they were exhausted, sunburned and sore. Many had been going for over 12 hours already and still had much of the 26.2 mile run still left to complete. It was awe inspiring to watch these athletes fight through such a grueling event.

This is us at our aid station!

This Ironman was the coolest thing to be able to watch and participate in. I highly recommend it to everyone!